Boy returns home
After a long day of working in the rice fields, a young boy returns home, ahead of his family. As he approaches the household he suddently gets bad feelings, something's not right. He runs the last two hundred meters. The gate in the fence is open, and the garden next to the house is demolished. Tomatoes, cucumbers, strawberries, all gone, eaten or trampled. Most of the carrots and other vegetables has been dug out. A yukkuri still there, it screams something as the boy runs past, but the boy pays little attention to it. The door to the house is open, and there's movement inside, the boy can hear screms of "yu" get louder as he approaches. He runs into the house, expecting the worst, and he's not disappointed. Everything is ruined, cupboards have been emptied, broken jars litter the floor. A large family of yukkuris is finishing their meal. In the middle of the room, facing the doorway sits one head significantly larger than others. "Oh! Mister, did you bring any food?" it exclaims. It has red hair and green cap with a golden star. The boy recognizes from the stories he heard, that the head is a mockery of the doorguard at the Vampire's mansion, her name is "China" or somesuch. "Well, didya?" Rage burns in him, he walks past the China Yukkuri, ignoring it. "Stupid mister. This is yukkuri house. Get out if you can't take it easy." The boy walks up to the chest that used to hold his personal items. It's been upturned, and the lid is broken off. The contents is scattered on the floor, everything that could be broken, is. He looks around once more. He was send back home ahead of the family to start preparations on the supper. But what preparations could be done now, when all the supplies are gone? He turns back to the evil head. His rage is no longer burning, it's far beyond that, crystalized into sharp determination. The yukkuri will pay. "I don't get it. Why didn't you bring any food? What are you doing in Yukkuri house?" Only now the boy notices there are two types of yukkuri in the mix. The other type sports cat ears and tails. The boy gets an idea. "Take it easy!" says the boy, with a fake smile plastered upon his face. "Take it easy!" answer all the heads in unison. "Yukkuri have a really nice house, you can really take it easy here" he says. the heads just "yu-yu" in exciation. "But there's going to be a rain soon, you should gather everyone inside, or they'll melt." "I don't get it, there's no rain coming, there aren't even clouds." says a cat-eared head. The boy thinks the head can perhaps sense the weather through magic or it's instincts, so he changes his line. "Oh, yes, but you see, it was a bit dry the past month so we hired a wizard to bring the rain to get better crops." "Stupid mister, why would you do that?" screams the big China-type. I just told you, to get better crops, you damned moronic head, thinks the boy. He doesn't say anything, fake smile still on his face. He glances towards the door. "Oh! I think I just saw the wizard fly over the forest there, it will really start pouring in a couple minutes!" "Oh no! We gotta get everyone inside!" exclaims the China-head, "yuyu" it turns to a smaller china type next to her "go gather your sisters, we need to take it easy here!" "Thank you for helping us, mister!" The small yukkuri departs. And the boy forms his plans. Perhaps the Yukkuri raid won't turn out to be as much of a disaster as he feared. He takes a couple of minutes, looking around the home, gathering items he might need, ocassionally saying "take it easy" to build the trust in the Yukkuris. He even feeds a couple with cookies from a broken jar (They were on the ground and could have glass shards in them, so they were no good for people anyways). "I just recalled something" says the boy "the roof leaks a bit in a couple places, if the wizard summons a really hard downpour we might not be able to take it easy!" "Wizard?" the head is suprised, it's already forgotten "We might not be able to take it easy" repeats the boy. "What do we do now? Mister?" "I have an idea, here, get the children into these baskets, that will let them take it easy.", he points to two rectangular baskets, turned sideways. There were empty baskets because their contents has been eaten by the Yukkuri, and now they'll serve just right to hold them, too bad the irony of that will be lost on the creatures. "Quick babies get into the basket!" orders the big China yukkuri, and the smaller ones head for the baskets. "Oh, wait wait" says the boy softly, "China-kind go into this basket, the cat-type into the other" It seems to anger some of the yukkuri. There is a cacophony of "My name is Mei-ling MEI-LING" in all sorts of voices. "Oh sorry, I mean, Meilins go here, so you can take it easy!" "Take it easy!" respond the heads in unisono. "I prepared more baskets in the other room, so go there if you start running out of place in these." "Thank you mister." "And be sure to keep Meilins in one baskets and cats in others" "I don't get it." says a cat-eared one, almost as big as the main China, that is Meilin. Probably the mother or father, if it could be called that. "How will the baskets help us from the rain?" "Oh, they'll let you take it easy, here, I prepared basked especially for you and you too", he presents two baskets, just big enough to hold the big China and cat-ears one. They are also equipped with lids, and string to tie the lids down. He places them on the floor. The China yukkuri promptly enters one of them. The cat-eared one seems hesistant, so the boy raises it gently, and places it in the other one. "Here, take it easy." he says, handing each of them half of a cookie left from before. While they're busy munching, he ties down the lids. Meanwhile the room has emptied of yukkuri. Some gathered in the baskets, others left for the other room. "Excuse me for a second." he apologizes and leaves for the other room. In the other room, the baskets were already full, but there were still many yukkuri outside. "I don't get it! There's not enough baskets! I can't take it easy like this!" cries a small cat-eared type. "Don't worry I'll help you." And the boy turns the baskets to upright position, and starts tossing the remaining yukkuri inside, sorting by type. There was plenty of space inside, as long as you didn't mind the miscomfort, and it was of no concern to the boy. Soon the screams start. After finishing the job, he returns to the main room. One of the small baskets with the parent yukkuris is bouncing around. "I don't get it! I don't get it!" comes from the basket. Luckily the boy returned in time, otherwise, the string and the lid might have come loose. He takes the basket and places it in the corner, weighting it down with a heavy rock. "I don't get it at all!" "Yuyu? Mwommie? You can't take it easy in the basket?" some child-yukkuri asks. "You need the basket to take it easy through the rain." adds the boy. "What's wrong my dear? We need the baskets to take it easy through the rain!" It seems to calm a bit after that. Then a group of about 20 small yukkuri appears at the door "Meiling is a good yukkuri, Meiling gather'd everyone from the garden to take it easy here!" announces the medium sized China leading the group. Just as planned, thinks the boy, smirking. "Come here, come here, I'll just set the baskets the right way up. The ones inside, gather by the back wall. Ready? Heave-ho!" there is a bit of scream from the confused yukkuri as he turns the baskets up, but it dies down soon. Then he adds the newcomers to the mix. They're slightly cramped, but not as much as the ones in the other room, so they remain mostly quiet. He closes the lids. He keeps the mid-sized China-type, and a small cat-eared type, and puts them on the table. "Can we get into baskets now?" "In a second, sit here for now, I need to get something." "Yuyu, what's that?" "A knife." He nears his face, face of anger and hatred to the Yukkuri, the fake smile gone. "But, but... Meiling was a good Yukkuri. Meiling gathered eve..." the boy lets out a laugh. So, even this crude beast finally understood. Of course, it couldn't comprehend the whole thing, but just about enough. "Yuyu? What's going on there? Mister?" exclaims the mother China from a basket in the corner. "Run! Quickly escape easy everyone! It's a trap!" shouts the mid-sized China, of course, the warning is way too late. The whole its family already packed up in various baskets. The scream is cut short as the boy cleaves it in half. The boy tasted the filling, it was extremely spicey. Perhaps it could be dried and used instead of pepper, but now he had two baskets full of that! And they just had to be more numerous than the cat-type. The little cat-eared bun shivers, trying to cover up with its tails. It has two, so it must be based on a cat youkai. "I don't get it!" it squeaks softly, as the boy picks it up, and bites a small chunk, hoping it's nothing like the other one. Chocolate! The creature is filled with chocolate. He eats the rest. The parent Yukkuris, unable to see the details from their basket start demanding explanations, they heard the little China's warning but are not quite sure what to make of it. "M... Mister? When's the rain going to start? Will it end soon? I wanna to go home!" asks the mother China. "What rain?" "Stupid mister, the rain..." it pauses, not sure what to say, then it remembers "... the rain, the wizard will bring." "There is no wizard, and there will be no rain." "Yu? Stupid mister! Why did you talk of rain then?" "I don't get it!" the cat-eared one joins in. "Don't worry, you won't stay in the baskets for long." When the family returned home, the boy summarised the situation. The father congratulated him on his quick thinking. They made enough money selling chocolate from the Chen-types (the parents quickly realized this was the name of the cat-type yukkuri) to replace the broken items and stolen food. The China types weren't too popular, so some were used up to feed the Chens to keep them fresh. The Chens complained a lot about the spicy food, but somehow they became even tastier through that. Once all Chens were sold the remaining China-types were killed, the filling dried to be used as spice, the rest used as fertilizer. The next year's crop was good. Category:Text Stories